Google's Android Wear is about simplifying future

A man looks at the LG G Watch, an Android Wear smartwatch, on the demo floor at Google I/O 2014 on June 25 in San Francisco. AP Photo
Jeff Chiu -
AP

NEW YORK — In its first iteration, Google’s Android Wear software for computerized wristwatches isn’t so much about innovation as it is an effort at simplification.

Available in two smartwatches out within the next week, Android Wear is rather limited in what it can do. Even last year’s smartwatches do some things that Android Wear can’t.

But the new software should help rein in a marketplace of confusion and encourage app developers to extend smartwatch functionality, the way they have made smartphones even smarter.

I’ll have more to say on the first two watches, Samsung’s $199 Gear Live and LG’s $229 G Watch, in a separate review later. I used both to test Android Wear, and this review is about that.

Android Wear requires a companion smartphone running Android 4.3 or later. That covers Kit Kat and the later versions of Jelly Bean, but according to Google’s own stats, only about a quarter of Android devices have either.

The companion phone doesn’t have to be from the same manufacturer as the watch. With both watches, I was able to use Motorola’s Moto G phone from November, Samsung’s Galaxy S III phone from 2012 and LG’s G3, which is coming to the U.S. this summer. After getting or updating some free apps on your phone, you need to link the watch and the phone wirelessly using Bluetooth.